Gun Shy Dog

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Iron Glove

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Our Toller is @ 4 years old, great mutt, good at agility, extremely intelligent, great chick magnet :D.
Now that I'm liscenced to kill, I'd like to try to train her to flush and retrieve when I go grouse hunting but she is extremely gun shy. Bangs, be it fireworks or firearms leave her a quivering mess, running for home. Tried using some 22 blanks with me 100 metres away so she might associate the bangs with something good ( me !!) but she just takes off and hides. I take a rifle out of the closet and down goes the tail.
Any suggestions?
Anyone know of a good trainer in the Vancouver (yes, the granola capital) area?
 
if your dog is gun shy she will never get over it
may learn to tolerate it at a great distance but shell always be scared
i do dog protection and if the dog cant handle gun shots it wont work out and get a new dog
 
There are lots of dogs that can be retrained to be ok around gunfire.

The reason some dogs are washed from early training, especially within law enforcement, is because it may take too long to train through the issue.

Dogs get washed from LE training for a number of very minor reason, most of which can be overcome with time. But sometimes timelines do not allow for this.

In the case of this dog, it may not work, but in all likelihood, it can be done.
 
I started my beagle from a pup with a cap gun, I'd fire a cap in the house before going for a walk, then out in the bush I used bear bangers. To this day he goes ape if I fire a cap inside, he thinks we are going for a walk or to the bush.
 
I am not a pro, but I read a lot about dog psycology.
what you need to do is associate the gun, ammo, camo, and eventually gun shots with something good.
here is how I would do it....
start with the gun, at food time ( I assume you feed the dog once a day) call the dog. make sure you have some of the best treats in your pocket (dogs love liver).
tell the dog to sit, take the gun out of the cabinet, then give her a treat, "good girl" in exciting voice, good scratch.
put the gun back in cabinet. let her go
10 minutes later, do the same thing. repeat it 10 times.
be very consistent.

do that for 5 days, then she should be very comfortable with the gun, and everytime she sees the gun, she knows she is getting a treat. yoohoo.

now, start doing the same thing but less treats, just a touch or Good Dog should be enough.

she now knows that Gun Out something good happens.

you get the idea.

then, you can do pretty much the same when firing. you can start with her on leash, you fire, you give a lot of treats. you stop firing, treats stop.

hope this helps. let me know how it works.
Mo
 
my uncle use to help train labs for hunting and i guess they had problems with gunshy dogs too. he always said that dogs are like humans. each has their own personality along with their own likes/dislikes.

if the dog doesnt want to do something even after the normal time it would take to train, i say dont force it to do something that it wont enjoy.

my lab-x knows that a gun means that soon enough she will get to retrieve something for me. i guess she was just a natural because the first time she heard a gunshot was at a goose. she looked at me and then the goose in the water and didnt know what to do. waited for about 30 seconds and yelled "get it" and she took off and brought it almost all the way back.

ever since then she goes crazy when she sees a gun and if she sees a gun and camo together she literally shakes she gets so excited.
 
There is only one way to gun break a 4 yr old dog. It's gonna be tough (for both of you) but it works.

Put down the dogs food dish. When the dog is just about to eat, fie a .22 blank. When the dog runs away, pick up the dish and put it away until the next day. Repeat.

Continue this until the dog stays at the food dish (The longest I've seen this take was 4 days without food). repeat this process for 5 succesfull "stays", then start again with a twelve guage. It might take one day without food the second time, but it's generally faster. Continue the regime for a MINIMUM of 30 days...just one shot. The dog will eventually begin to associate gun with food.

easy from there.

Ryan
 
canadian hunter312 said:
if the dog doesnt want to do something even after the normal time it would take to train, i say dont force it to do something that it wont enjoy.
Click to expand...

Bingo!
You might be able to recondition her to the gunfire, but even then it will have limits. You can never force a dog to like someone or something.

Our Dalmatian points and gets all exited when she hears gunfire, and she has never been trained for any of this stuff. Our other 7 dogs we have react in a variety of ways. Esp' our Deerhound collie cross, hide under my chair shaking completely out of her poor little mind during local fireworks.

BTW the worst thing you can do besides adding more negative input is to pet her when she is scared, and all that baby talk...dogs can become nurtured into more fear that way...best to calmly take her out of the situation, and simply let her be with you, but don't pet her or talk to her, and even avoid eye contact...no big deal to you, soon means she has nothing to be afraid of.

All the petting and baby talk is in a way like saying "I like this behaviour...yes keep doing it, be scared".
A training style I use is Operant conditioning ie, you ONLY REACT TO THE BEHAVIOUR YOU WANT.

Prey drive games on the other hand are different...so lets say she is ball/toss toy obsessed and loves to fetch...throw ball bang to sticks together...work your way up to cb .22 shorts (fired in a safe direction), and then louder firearms over the next few weeks.

Stop if she shows any sign of fear, and start the next level down.

Bangs should equal good things to her.

I know one fellow in the USA who used an old wire wrapped Enfield rifle with the grenade launching attachment to lob his dogs fav' tennis balls and Kongs into a small lake near his cabin.

In that case this helped this dog...anyway I hope this makes sense. :D
 
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My dog as soon as I open my safe he runs away, and if I take them out to clean them and he hasn't run away the sound of me clearing my gun makes him, I think before I got him who ever tried to shoot him.
 
Boy 'o boy, are you in a tough spot... With this issue, everyone has a different solution... IMHO, time and more time will likely get the dog to "accept" or "tolerate" the gun, but NEVER love it like most hunting dogs do. In my case, I started my english pointer VERY young with a cap gun, then a starter pistol, then a 22 rifle, then a shotgun over birds... All the while decreasing the distance I fired the sound from...

In your case, that dog's got to associate good things with the gun... Food is a HUGE motivator with dogs, and starving your dog is NOT cruel like some tree huggers believe. In this case, starving your dog just might save it's quality of life!

So, that being said, take your time, use food to reward the dog and maybe, just maybe your gonna turn the dog around...

Good Luck
Cheers
Jay
 
I wouldn't waste any time in training your present dog. I've trained several yellow labs for ducks and geese. When looking for a new pup, take along a small shottie (410 or so), remove all of the shot, look at the whole litter and fire the gun. The one that gets excited and looks around is the one you buy. Inform the seller of your intentions prior to doing any of this. It's best and easiest to train a dog as a pup than as an adult. Save yourself alot of frustration. You can always have 2 dogs. Who knows, the pup might show your dog something. Good luck.

-Jason
 
Retraining a gun shy dog can be a tough task, but if you can successfully get the dog to associate good things (food, praise, outings, etc) with the gun, as many have already said, it can be done.

I had a Brittany Spaniel that wasn't trained correctly as a pup and was really gun shy, but enough trips in the company of my Golden (which couldn't get enough water, ducks and guns) really helped him get over it.
 
My dog goes ballistic when he hears shots. He has to be where the shooting is. He's still a pup, but he LOVES to head out to the bush. I didn't do any training, but he comes from a line of pointers, so I think genetics plays a big part. Your dog probably comes from a non hunting line.

I was told to be carefull when he was really young (he's 11 months now), not to shoot too close to him. I would take him to the fields to plug gophers and noticed he didn't flinch at all when shooting from 20-30 feet away. Then I brought out the 12 guage. Thats when I realized he's a hunter. Season starts this weekend, can't wait to see how he does.

I'd say get another dog. From what I've been told, It's going to be really tough to get him hunting. Good luck.
 
Thanks for all the comments.
I'll be trying the food / reward system to see if we can make any progress.
Getting another mutt is out of the question - one is enough. :p
Daughter (used to be a Vet Assistant) has just got a Chocolate Lab pup and has a friend who does retriever training so we might jointly investigate that avenue. They won't be hunting with their dog but maybe I'll borrow it.
Our mutt is great at flushing grouse when I ride the ATV, she runs along and into the woods and voila, grouse all over the lpace. Now I gotta figure a way to mount the shotgun on a swivel on the ATV and blast away. :D
 
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